Genealogy

I’ve been into (okay, obsessed with) genealogy since I was a teenager. It all started when I was looking at a photo of my grandfather (who had died before I was born) and suddenly wondered: Who were his parents? What was their story? And what about their parents? Dad didn’t know, because his grandparents had died long before he was born, too. But he knew where they were buried, so we went there and I copied down the names and dates that were on the family headstone and headed for the local public library, where I looked through microfilm archives of our local newspaper and found my great-grandparents’ obituaries. From there I found more information, and found relatives who could give me even more information — and, more importantly, stories. Now, more than a quarter century later, I’ve amassed a great deal of genealogical experience and know a lot about my ancestral origins. It’s never enough, of course.

While there are numerous ways to share what I’ve found, I think the best way to do it here at my blog (that is, a way to present my genealogy efficiently but also somehow elegantly) is to anchor everything to the earliest ‘complete’ generation in my family tree: my great-great-grandparents. For now this page is just a placeholder, but soon you will be able to click the following to find out more about my great-great-grandparents and the people who came before and after them:

Alexander MacVay & Elizabeth Armour

George Edward Macarntey & Mary Ann McBrine

Joseph William Davison & Alice Caroline Beaton

Hector MacKenzie & Isabella MacRae

Angus MacLeod & Jessie MacInnis

Nathaniel Powell & Elizabeth Leyte

Victor Martell & Palmyre Fougere

Duncan Hugh MacDougall & Margaret Morrison

I’ve also had my DNA tested and have been slowly immersing myself into the world of genetic genealogy. 23andMe says my Y chromosome haplogroup is I2b1, which is outdated but after some extra digging I think my haplogroup is I2a2a1a1a1. My mitochondrial (maternal) DNA haplogroup is H4a1. Oh, and apparently I’m three percent Neanderthal, which my wife will say is probably accurate.